


please don't take my sunshine away

by fullmetallizard



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 05:59:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6272596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmetallizard/pseuds/fullmetallizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He’d been with her for one assassination attempt when he was eighteen and she was fifteen. They’d fought together and, while it was scary, it was nothing compared to this. Someone had actually gotten to her. Someone hurt her.<i></i></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	please don't take my sunshine away

**Author's Note:**

> No matter how much I wish it were so, I do not own FMA.

“May?” Al asked nervously. He was meeting her in the library for another tutoring session on alkahestry and saw May hunched over on the table.

He sat beside her and touched her shoulder lightly. He’d only recently gotten permission from Ling (who’d been laughing hysterically at Al) to marry May and they were still giggly and nervous about the engagement.

Al got closer and saw that the way she was hunched over didn’t look…right. Al had only been reading qi for four years but he was getting decent at it, even if it required more concentration than it did May (for whom it was second nature). He focused on May and saw her qi wavering and fading.

“May,” he said, a little louder. He lifted her up and she fell limp against his chest.

“Alphonse?” She asked weakly.

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

She held her arm out and opened her mouth to speak but then her eyelids fluttered and she lost consciousness. Al looked at the arm she’d held out. There was a puncture wound on her upper arm, the bead of blood vibrant against her white skin.

“MAY!” He shouted, trying to rouse her. “MAY!”

He stood and hauled her into his arms. She was so tiny compared to him. He thought of poison coursing through the body of someone so small, how it wouldn’t need that long to take her.

He’d been with her for one assassination attempt when he was eighteen and she was fifteen. They’d fought together and, while it was scary, it was nothing compared to this. Someone had actually gotten to her. Someone hurt her.

He ran to the court’s hospital which was, thankfully, only a few buildings down from the library. Nurses rushed up to him. He told them in frantic Xingese that he found her in the library and that he thought she’d been drugged. They took her away and sent him to a waiting room.

He held his head in his hands, trying to breathe evenly.

“Hey,” he heard.

Al jumped and looked up to see Ling and Lan Fan. “Hi,” he said quietly.

“I heard someone tried to kill my sister.” He had several siblings but May was the only one he acknowledged as such.

“I think so. She had a needle mark in her arm and she fainted.”

“Are you okay?” Ling asked, sitting beside him.

“I don’t know yet,” Al answered, feeling his chest tighten. He was so close to marrying her and being hers and now…she might be gone. Al tried to be optimistic but he was so afraid. There was no room for anything else.

“I know it’s scary to see someone you love fight for their life,” Ling said, shockingly serious. Al noticed Lan Fan almost unconsciously rubbing the spot where her flesh met her automail.

“She’s never safe in Xing. I’m afraid she’ll never be safe at all,” Al said, voice much weaker than he wanted it to be.

“You’ll be in danger too,” Ling pointed out. “Once you get married.”

“I don’t…I don’t care about me.”

Ling laughed. “You and your brother. Both too selfless for your own good.” They were quiet. After the long pause, Ling spoke “I’ll increase her guard for a while. This won’t happen again.”

“Thank you, Ling.” That would only work if she was okay but he was grateful for it nonetheless.

Ling and his silent companion soon left, leaving Al alone once again. After an hour, he called Ed.

“Hello?” Winry asked.

“Hi, Winry. Is Brother there?”

“Yeah. Give me a second.” She called for Ed. “He’s coming down. Are you okay? You sound weird.”

“May was attacked. She’s…she’s not doing well.”

“Oh, Al…here’s Ed,” she said softly.

“Hey, brother. What’s going on?”

“Someone poisoned May.”

There was a pause. “Shit. Is she…”

“The doctors are with her now. I haven’t seen her.”

“I’m sorry. I know you care about her. She’s a good friend to you.”

He blushed. He never told Ed when he started courting May but all of his stories ended up being about her anyway. “We’re…we’re getting married, Brother.”

“Oh…congratulations,” Ed said softly.

“Tell me how things are,” Al said, choking down the urge to cry.

“They’re really good. Winry’s…we’re not telling people yet but Winry’s pregnant.”

“I’m happy for you. Baby number three, huh?”

“Yeah. Ben and Sara just went to bed actually. They’re excited for another sibling.”

“I miss them,” Al said, laughing a little.

“Ben reminds me of you, Al. He’s shy and soft-spoken like you. He’s an easy going kid.”

“Who is Sara like?”

“She’s just like me,” Ed laughed. “God, it’s too much. She’s so hotheaded.”

“It’s karma.”

“Hilarious,” he deadpanned.

“Tell me more about your kids. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them.”

Ed’s stories distracted Al from his fear until a doctor approached him. “Are you Alphonse Elric?”

“Yes,” he answered in Xingese. “Brother, I have to go. I love you.”

“Call soon, Al.”

Al hung up the phone and followed the doctor to May’s room, heart racing. He turned the corner and saw May lying in a bed. Her cheeks were pink and her chest was rising and falling. Tears sprung to Al’s eyes, the relief flooding his body.

“Hello love,” she said, motioning for him to sit beside her. He did. He grabbed her hand and admired her bright and steady qi.

“I’m so glad you’re all right, May. I was so worried.” Tears came to his eyes once more.

“Oh, you silly man,” she smiled, putting her hand against his cheek. “It’ll take more than a syringe to take me out.”

He put his hand over hers. “May.” Tears were flowing openly now. “I love you.”

“Oh, Alphonse. I love you too. Everything’s okay now.”

And it was. May survived. She was sleepy and her joints were a little sore. And he later found out that her heart might have trouble beating fast enough for her for a while but that she would make a full recovery.  That was all Al could have hoped for. They would get to be together. They would have a chance.

He would keep her safe, he decided. This attack on her life would be the only one that could get close enough to be serious. If it meant laying down his own life…so be it.

“What are you thinking about?” May asked sleepily, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“You. How much I love you.” She blushed.

“Silly, silly,” she murmured in Xingese. “Just so you know, we’re going to make up that tutoring session we missed.”

He laughed out loud, making the pink of her cheeks deepen.

“Of course,” he replied back in his loved one’s tongue. “I expected nothing less.”


End file.
